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“Everybody who wants democracy should defend public space as space of everyone”

Interview with Carolin Emcke

Carolin Emcke

[VO En | 00:05:51]

Carolin Emcke reflects on shrinking public spaces for people that are perceived as others and warns of proliferation of radical movements that are taking public space.

At the beginning of October 2018 Carolin Emcke gave the lecture “Spiral of hatred” at the CCCB about alarming rise and spread of manifestations of hatred in today’s societies.

In the interview she gave, she states that public space is underestimated in its importance in democratic culture and society. She expresses concern that public spaces are shrinking for those who are perceived as different in a society in favour of various radical movements that are taking away the space of everyone.

As for her favourite public space,Carolin Emcke has chosen two of them. She highlighted the Memorial Passages a Portbou the Israeli artist Dani Karavan created in Portbou in honour of Walter Benjamin in the place where the philosopher, persecuted by Nazis,committed suicide. The intervention, which commemorates the history of persecution of Jews, homosexuals and communists, among others, emphasize what nowadays gives meaning to being European.

The other relevant public space for the journalist is the Forest of Remembrance at the Retiro Park in Madrid, a tribute to the victims of the terrorist attack in 2004. She emphasized the simplicity and peace of the place that invites to reflection and meditation as response to hatred and violence.